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[Primer] - Mentor Miracle

Miracle Mentor

Hi guys, some of you might know me, my name is Claudio Bonanni and I am a very passionate legacy player, and part of a great team - *Wooded Team*(https://www.facebook.com/WoodedTeam/?fref=ts). Now Iím going to talk about a deck Iíve played for almost all of my big tournamentsL Mentor Miracles. Let's start with some history: Dig Through Time was all over the metagame, and I picked this deck, which I was lucky enough to take it down with. *

Let's start with the history of the deck - the first time it was play was during GP Kyoto in 2015 by Kazuya Murakami who reached the Top8 with a new Miracles list featuring Monastery Mentor, as well as Stoneforge Mysti. When I saw this list, I felt really excited to try it, as it reminded me of the old Nasif Baseruption!**So I started to play this list online and with my Wooded Teamates. After a few weeks, I was quite disappointed with the Stoneforges, which felt really slow and didnít seem cohesive with the shell, so I cut them to make more room for reactive cards like Snapcaster Mage and Pyroblast, in a metagame full of Dig Through Time.*

After the banning, I had to change the powerful copies of Dig Through Time to other cards that were ďgood enoughĒ. I ended up choosing Jace, the Mind Sculptor, which is a really good card, but really not even close to the power level of Dig Through Time...

Well, Iíve been always quite skeptical of the classic Miracle version and I was looking for something that might play also an offensive role, instead of wait until you get enough set-up of your future draws. More than that, I was looking for something less clunky and more proactive, something with a good balance in both the early game and the late game. Almost all you know how Miracles works, you usually tread water until you stabilize the board and than drop some powerful stuff like Jace, Entrat the Angels or Mentor. But this list is different...you might be the one who takes the initiative by smashing your Mentor on turn 3 with Daze/Force of Will backup! A player, better than me, wrote*"With the Mentor version, you have a quick way to turn the corner and sometimes you also get to force them to play from behind, which is not where Delver decks traditionally thrive. When they are trying to play catch-up and are spending their turns answering your threats, you are in the driver seat. Now that's what I call control."* This explains the concept really well, and it really spoke to me..."be in control". I don't always like to be the one who has to answer each question, I prefer to be the one asking the question*. Give to your opponent the possibility to make a mistake!
Some reasons:*
1) Legacy has been a strange format, with many different decks and weird cards, so in my opinion the best way for handle an unknown opponent playing a random deck is to disrupt his game plan as much as possible while also developing your own proactive game plan.

2) Another good reason to play this version is that it has a really good MU against all other versions of Miracles, since you can drop your Counterbalance on T2 with Daze backup to fight through your opponentís Counterspell or an opponent's Counterbalance. Youíre also able to drop a Mentor early, that forces your opponent to answer it, otherwise they might fall in 2 or 3 turns.*

3) This deck has a good MU against Delver decks, since your Daze behaves like Force of Will against them. All Delver decks based work with few lands so your tax counters become really powerful until the late game. If you can handle their threats in the early game, you will have a good chance to win. I think that the only hard Delver MU is against Grixis Delver, where they are able to get their token generation online before you, while attacking your resources with Cabal Therapy.*

While other versions have their own positions defined throughout the game, that role conversion is even more emphasized in this deck, because itís much more easy to control each aspect: sometimes youíll be the beatdown, other times, the control player. In my experience in playing this deck, itís quite a bit more difficult to play than other, more control-oriented builds of Miracles. This is because you have to build your own gameplan, answering each threat while also deploying your own before your opponent has the opportunity to do the same. This means that you have to figure out what cards your opponent has in hand, as well as what potential cards they have in their list, in order to predict what you must play around as the game progresses.
Play well this requires a lot of experience, because you need to figure out what will be the next move in order to drop your Mentor to win the game. It happen, more than you think, that you will be tempt to Sword or Terminate some opponent's creatures, but it might be a mistake since you can simply win the game by playing one spell and counter it with Daze/Fow, creating an army of tokens and than close the game before you opponent. As i said before, the biggest problem here is develop your strategy around your enemy...

New update.
[SIZE=2]In past few weeks, Iíve been testing a ďnewĒ card that might be considered a suitable Dig Through Time substitute; Predict. Predict gives us a source of card advantage, as well as digging through the top of our library to clear the top 3. I am not sure about how many copies I should be playing, since I am not the biggest fan of cantripping into more cantrips, but 2 seem like a good number now. If we spend each turn cantripping, we might be too slow, so thatís something that we should keep in mind. The cards I cut to make room for it was the 2nd Jace, the Mind Sculptor, since it rather slow in a lean deck like this, and the metagame is still full of Red blast effects. The second card I cut was the 2nd Counterspell, since thatís still really situational too, and we already have more early interaction compared to most miracles decks.

Sensei's is gone as well as Counterbalance, the wolrd is not the same anymore!

So i accepted the challenge and i've started to build something again, end up to try cards like Portent (as well as other miracle players) and move from virtual card advantage to real card advantage, using Predict.
A new metagame was facing the Legacy panorama, with different kind of combo and the rise of Grixis Delver as tier 1. So i decided to try the black splash instead the red and fight to the Ovino spring. I finished the tournament with a 6-2 wasn't enough, but as always a really good friend, Johannes Gutbrod, comes to me, i showed him the idea and we start to speak about the future updated for this deck!
Day after day we keep in touch and develop the deck, which we believe, would be good enough for any tournament even without our Top! after all the black splash wasn't good enough as i thought and we move back to the red. The thing was that the Rebs and Blood Moon are both strong weapons if you need to fight random decks or blue based decks, obv discards effects might be the best answer for combo...but, wasn't just enough!

Don't Daze me Bro!

Daze is probably the most controversial card in this version of Miracles. The most common argument of criticizers is that Daze basically forces us to Time Walk ourselves, but is that really true, and does it really matter? In order to answer this question yourself, I think you really need to play this deck for a while, and, by a while, I mean at the at the very least, 6 months. Daze is both the most offensive and the most defensive card in this build. Playing it wisely will reward you in droves, but, play it incorrectly Ė even just a little bit Ė and it might become your downfall. All control players know how important mana development is, but that concept is rather over-exaggerated in Legacy Miracles. This isnít always a control deck, and you can often end on 4-5 mana in play to play everything you need to. Iíve played something like 300+ Miracles mirrors during my years of playing this list, and the same thing always happens: Both of us with top in play, start to draw and play lands, but you both stop around the 5th land, where you draw only spells. During my last two GPís, Iíve played against 6 Miracles Mirrors, and Iíve won all of them. Not because Iíve been better than my opponent each time (Iíd never think of myself in that way), but because Daze gave me free wins that allows me to counter a turn two Counterbalance or a Four Mana Jace, as well as being able to operate more leanly and more efficiently than my opponentís decks.

Even more, Daze is a powerful card when you are able to play a weapon like Monastery Mentor: dazing your own spells might be low value, but, in a pinch, it really works!**
Daze has saved me in many situations, against cards like Golgari Charm, Toxic Deluge or the ever-present Lightning Bolt. Some players might argue that once your opponent knows that your are playing Daze, he will simply play around it the rest of the game. While this might be true, does it really make it any less effective? Years ago, a good friend of mine told me*"if your opponent will play around Daze, it means that it already does what you need".* At that time I didn't understand this little sentence, but game after game, Iíve finally figured out its hidden meaning.*

Card selection

Creatures/Finisher4 Monastery Mentor: it's why we are playing this deck. Is only a 2/2, but with his ability and prowess is able to take down the game very quickly. Decrease the number to 3 would be probably a mistake, since the entire deck is built to abuse it. Notably, is the only 3 drop for Counterbalance, which is another good reason to play the full playset.*2 Snapcaster Mage: has been always one of the greatest cards in control decks, across any format, so you should not be surprised to see this dude here**I would like to play 3 of them, but it's still usually a CMC3 which might be clunky at times.*2 Jace the Mind Sculptor: this card has been a great in control decks as well as Snapcaster, it does different things, like close the game ofter several turns. But in this kind of deck might be quite clunky since it cost 4 mana sorcery speed and sometimes you can find an hard time to cast it, if you played Daze.

Counters.4 Force of Will: I should not have to explain anything here*.*I would consider going down to 3 if the metagame was more blue, to add some cards like Pyroblast or any other counter like the old but good, Counterspell.*3 Daze: Like Iíve told you before, Daze is the the key counter here, but I still thinkithat the 4th might be too much since you just need one of them during the early game. Here, it takes the perfect offensive role, when you smash you Mentor on the battlefield on turn 3.
Itís also extremely effective against all tempo decks that run Delver of Secrets, since itís often a hardcounter, and itís also a CMC 2 card for Counterbalance, which is always a fine reason.*3 Counterspell: Some would say that this is an old one, but itís still good! Still a good counter to fight in the mid/late game, and I could never play at least one.

Cantrips4 Brainstorm4 Ponder4 Portent: this cards is not like Top as all we know, but still a good card for this deck and allow you to play Terminus during oppo's upkeep. And sometimes, when you will be in control, you can re-order the top3 cards of the opponent deck.3 Predict: the card is huge! yeah i like it. With it you are able to discard a bad card and draw 2 at the same time. Also with Portent you can fateless some problems from opponent's deck.

Removal4 Terminus: Is the best sweeper ever printed, so why wouldnít you ever play a full set?*3 Swords to Plowshares: Like Terminus, StP is the greatest removal for just one W mana. I might see only 3 copies if you are playing one main-deck Pyroblast since it can deal with Delver and all other blue creatures.

SideboardSideboard choices have been always a controversial point. I donít think there is always a ďbestĒ sideboard, but there is a ďgood compromiseĒ. The most important thing when you are building a sideboard is not build it like ď60+15 modeĒ but a full 75. What do I mean? That you should create a good balance between your maindeck and your sideboard, thinking about which cards might fit better than another in your 75. I'm not here to tell you what you should play or not play, since it will depend what is your playstyle and metagame for sure. All my choices have been made after many test in a random field and with my own playstyle so you might be sceptic about some cards.

2 Flusterstorm - 3 Pyroblast: those cards are perfect to fight combo and Delver decks. I think every Miracle list should at least have those cards in sideboard. Flusterstorm is basically and hard counter for a delver deck, as well as Pyroblast. 2 Vendilion Clique - 1 Containment Priest: they are my disruption pieces for combo and also for some grinding MU. You might change the Priest with Canonist or something else, but Vedilion should be here always. Is perfect to hit a Decay and than drop your lovely Blood Moon, or cast it in response to any activetion or good spells like Show and Tell. 1 Izzet Staticaster - 1 Engineered Explosives*- 1 Wear//Tear - 1 Disenchant: those cards are here for fight random MU and Vial tribals like Death and Taxes. You can swap many of those cards with other, i don't think there is a stock core. I like the split 1Wear/1Disenchant, since sometimes against Wasteland-base decks you don't want fetch into Volcanic for destroy some annoying artifacts. 2 Blood Moon: many players don't like this card, i can get it. But i don't see why i shouldn't play a card that it give you (often) free win when it resolves.

SideboardingClassic Miracle:Very Favorable - as i wrote before the MU is quite easy for us since we can drop Balance on T2 with Daze backup. Pre-board is quite random, if we have many white cards we are going to lose. Post-board we know what fight, so counter a Balance is not an option, but remember that the Mentor is the best way to get the game.

Death and Taxes:Slightly Favorable - Pre-board we have to fight Vial with Fow or Daze and drop our Mentor as soos as we can. Post-board we get EE and all Disenchant effects so we are able to deal with all those artifacts.

4c Control:Slightly Favorable - Terminus is our best friend here since Swords is quite often a 1x2 against Leovold, Strix or Snapcaster. Post board you should treat it as a control so take out almost all Swords.

Delver Decks:Favorable - It's usually an easy MU since they are not able to deal with all our threats like Balance or Mentor. Post-board is the same, even more if we run Blood Moon. Don't forget to keep Daze, even on the draw since you need to fight in the early game.

Re: Mentor Miracle

Hi Claudio, thank you so much for this primer.
Here we can find good explanation about the Mentor tech, writed by the hand who have pilot the deck at the top.
The chapter about Daze is great imho.
Great job.

Re: Mentor Miracle

Excellent write up, Claudio! Thank you for that. Just one question regarding the new sideboard. Is there a reason behind playing 2 Pyroblast and 1 REB? I would figure that just going with 3 Pyroblasts would be better in a Mentor heavy deck since it can be played without a blue target in a tight spot.

Re: Mentor Miracle

Originally Posted by pnutbutr

Excellent write up, Claudio! Thank you for that. Just one question regarding the new sideboard. Is there a reason behind playing 2 Pyroblast and 1 REB? I would figure that just going with 3 Pyroblasts would be better in a Mentor heavy deck since it can be played without a blue target in a tight spot.

Helps reduce the risk of Surgical Extraction taking out all of your Pyroblasts. I suppose it's just a balancing act between how much you value that protection vs. the scenario that you mentioned where that extra Prowess trigger gets you there.

Re: Mentor Miracle

Originally Posted by pnutbutr

Excellent write up, Claudio! Thank you for that. Just one question regarding the new sideboard. Is there a reason behind playing 2 Pyroblast and 1 REB? I would figure that just going with 3 Pyroblasts would be better in a Mentor heavy deck since it can be played without a blue target in a tight spot.

obv pyro is better with mentor but sometimes (and it happen) they cabal therapy you for pyro or Mage call it

Re: [Primer] - Mentor Miracle

Originally Posted by B88

Classic Miracle:Very Favorable - as i wrote before the MU is quite easy for us since we can drop Balance on T2 with Daze backup.

Your chance to draw Daze and Balance is around 20% no Ponder or Brainstorm involved T1. And you do not always start, it only matters in about 10% of the games and if the opponents dont tap out on T1 i dont think it is that Favorable.

Re: [Primer] - Mentor Miracle

Originally Posted by Amunshax

Your chance to draw Daze and Balance is around 20% no Ponder or Brainstorm involved T1. And you do not always start, it only matters in about 10% of the games and if the opponents dont tap out on T1 i dont think it is that Favorable.

Re: Mentor Miracle

"I think the major difference in how I see Miracles compared to others is that I don't view it as a control deck; I view it as a midrange deck. I think people have adapted to beating Miracles played as a control deck...."

"I firmly believe that playing a build with Entreat the Angels instead of Mentor is flawed. I also feel that playing builds that are trying to grind out card advantage with cards like Predict is also flawed...."

Re: Mentor Miracle

Yea if BBD wants to jam a mentor turn 3 and spout things like "now that's what I call control" then good for him, that's not how entreat-predict builds are played. Also AFAIK if anything from reddit is true he was given a decklist from some legacy podcast people (brainstorm show I think?), made 2 changes to the sideboard and failed to give credit until he got called out on it.

Re: Mentor Miracle

Originally Posted by say no to scurvy

Yea if BBD wants to jam a mentor turn 3 and spout things like "now that's what I call control" then good for him, that's not how entreat-predict builds are played. Also AFAIK if anything from reddit is true he was given a decklist from some legacy podcast people (brainstorm show I think?), made 2 changes to the sideboard and failed to give credit until he got called out on it.

We're discussing Mentor Miracles and/or Miracles as a whole. The focus and the arguments are on the decks. BBD as a person and his behavior are totally different issues, sounds like a derailing discussion to me.

The "Jam a mentor turn 3" sounds like an oversimplification. When you are committing 3~4 Mentors with 0 Entreat, Entreat is the elephant of the room, or the lack thereof. This has to be addressed. I'm not saying I favor one approach or another, but we have to clarify and give explanation, not every Miracles pilots is on the same page.

Re: Mentor Miracle

@B88:
I guess you should mention that your 3 STP//4 Terminus split is a meta call. Depending on the amount of Swarm Aggro 4 STP//3 Terminus might be the correct call - even more so, since STP triggers MM and is a sweet SCM target.